Pound’s “Station,” Lorca’s “Rider,” and Berryman’s “Traveler”

In April 1913, Ezra Pound published a series of poems under the title “Contemporania” in Poetry. The final poem in the group is one of Pound’s most well-known (and frequently memorized) poems, the two-line “In a Station of the Metro,” above.

Ezra Pound published work in Poetry from its first issue and was Poetry’s long-time foreign correspondent. “In a Station of the Metro” is considered the epitome of Imagist poetry, a movement which, conveniently, Pound clarified in the previous issue (March 1913) with “A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste”:

It is the presentation of such a “complex” instantaneously which gives that sense of sudden liberation; that sense of freedom from time limits and space limits; that sense of sudden growth, which we experience in the presence of the greatest works of art.

It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works.

From its inception, Poetry welcomed translations of work from around the world. (A legacy upheld today with our annual translation issue, in addition to publishing translations throughout the year.) April 1937 marks the first appearance of Federico Garcia Lorca’s work in the magazine, translated by Rolfe Humphries. His poem “Rider’s Song” is above.

Alas! the long, long highway,
Alas! my valiant pony,
Alas, that death is waiting
Before I reach Cordova.

Cordova, far and lonely.

Lorca’s biographical note at the back of the issue alerts readers to the untimely passing of the “distinguished Spanish poet who, it is now known, was killed by the rebel forces last autumn.”